Maybe He's Not So Bad
by JanaPedrini
Summary: When Kaya get's invited to the Pro-Bending Ball by a guy only she knows, Korra thought the guy was wonderful. But what happens when she and the rest of the Fire Ferrets find out who he really is. Will they find out that maybe Tahno isn't as bad as he seems? OC story. Takes place between when Korra first meets Tahno and when they see him fight. A little out of order.
1. The Date

**Hey! I'm alive after all! I swear to everything that is everything that I will complete this story, as a matter of fact, I'm almost done. It's just 1:30 in the morning and I need to sleep. I'm uploading the first couple chapters and I'll upload the rest once I'm finished. As you can tell, this is an OC story. She's the eldest daughter of Tenzin and Pema. Korra is her best friend and she is a major pro-bending fan. Would you believe me if I didn't know which element she bends yet. Either water or air. For the sake of simplicity, we'll just go with air for now. Hope you enjoy! **

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The Pro-bending Ball. One of the most prestigious events of the year. Every year, all of the pro-bending teams that participated in that year's season are invited to a formal ball to commemorate the starting of the Pro-Bending Championships. The ball receives a lot of attention, particularly from the media, so it's very important to everyone's reputation. Everyone makes sure to look and act their best.

Okay, that's a lie. The Pro-Bending Ball, while formal, isn't much more than a formal dance. There's slow dancing and fast dancing, drinks and food. A few reporters hang around outside. And everyone is allowed 1 guest/date.

Which leads us to our current dilemma.

"What's his name? Where's he from? What does he bend? How old is he? Is he cute? Do you like him? Do you like like him?"

"This is why I didn't want to tell you why I didn't want to go with you Korra," Kaya sighed. "A name. Republic City. An element. My age. Yes. Yes. Maybe."

Ikki looked extremely put out by this response and was about to ask more questions when Korra dragged Kaya out of the room.

"So," Korra said slyly, "Who's the guy?"

Kaya blushed a bit. "He's just a good friend of mine."

"Well obviously he's more than just a friend if you have reason to believe that he's going to ask you to be his plus one," Korra smiled.

"Well, I do like him, and I think he likes me, but just in case, if he doesn't ask me, I'll go with you!"

"Wow. That makes me feel special." Korra paused, "How do you think he'll ask you?"

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Hopefully, over the phone." Kaya tried to walk slowly towards the phone but couldn't help almost running. _Please be him._

"Hello?" Kaya asked into the phone, she could feel Korra's eyes watching her excitedly. "Hey, you." She saw Korra smirk out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, I know about it." Kaya grinned widely, "I'd love to! What color should I wear? Really? You're matching by elements? Yeah I think it's cheesy. But I also think it's a great idea."

Kaya nodded a few times. "Umm, I'd have to check my closet but- No, you don't need to do that. It isn't a big deal, I can just buy one myself! Seriously, you don't need to- Fine. But choose one you think I'll love. You know what I like."

Korra mouthed the words "What's going on?" Kaya just held up a finger signaling she would tell her later.

"Yeah she's going too. Well she asked me to go, but I kind of had a feeling you would call. Hey, listen. I need to go now but I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for everything. Bye." Kaya hung up the phone.

Korra couldn't hold it any longer, "Tell me everything!"

Kaya laughed, "Okay, okay! He asked me to the ball and I said yes. His team is coordinating themselves and their dates' colors by element color. He wants me to dress in blue. He wants to buy me a new dress too because I didn't think I had one. He's so sweet," Kaya got a dreamy look in her eyes.

"So what's his name?!" Ikki burst open the door and yelled.

"Yeah," Korra agreed, "What _is_ his name?"

Kaya blushed and looked away, "I'm not gonna say. But I show him to you at the ball."

Korra pouted, "What? You can't even tell _me_? We're like sisters!"

"We _are_ sisters!" Ikki pouted.

"Oh shush." Kaya responded as she walked away smugly.


	2. The Guy

**I feel like everyone might be a bit out of character in this chapter. But I hope it's still okay.**

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As time ticked closer to the day of the ball, Korra saw Kaya leave Air Temple Island more often and usually return with some sort of wrapped up gift, the only one of which she would show her was the dress He, as she'd come to call him, had gotten her. Korra never ended up getting an actual date to the ball but she was okay with settling for just hanging out with Bolin and Mako, well, mostly Bolin as Mako was going with Asami.

When the day of the ball finally approached Korra and Kaya helped each other get ready. Well, mostly Kaya helped Korra.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Korra asked suspiciously while Kaya started doing Korra's hair.

"Of course! I've had plenty of experience getting gussied up for events and dates with-" Kaya cut herself off before she could reveal her date's identity. Korra's eyes widened.

"Oh! So you've gone on dates with Him before?" Korra smiled slyly. "When? It had to have been recently and that's why you were always leaving Air Temple Island."

Kaya tugged Korra's hair a bit. "Yes, I've had dates with him, but that wasn't the only reason I would leave Air Temple Island."

Korra rolled her eyes, resulting in another hair tug from Kaya. "Yeah, right. So, have you kissed him yet?" Kaya pulled Korra's hair harder this time, resulting in a yelp from Korra.

"There. Your hair is done. Now let's get you in that dress," Kaya avoided the question. As she helped Korra get zipped into her dress, she smiled and lightly whispered, "Yes."

Korra and Kaya arrived at the ball together. Korra questioned why He wasn't picking Kaya up, but Kaya only smiled and said that she told him not to, lest he reveal his identity. By this point, Korra was honesty expecting some kind of mysterious criminal or something and that's why she refused to tell anything about him.

When they arrived inside the building that would be hosting they handed over their invitations and Kaya told Korra to go find her friends. She wanted to find Him first before she introduced them. Korra reluctantly agreed and went to go find Bolin.

He found her first.

"Korra! You look stunning!" Bolin greeted. Mako and Asami weren't far behind.

'Seriously, Korra! You look great!" Asami agreed cheerfully. She was holding onto Mako's arm. Korra would have been more angered by this if it wasn't for her curiousity.

"Thanks, but," she started, "Would any of you happen to know who Kaya's date is? She was invited by some guy but she refused to tell me the name or practically any information about the guy. She insisted that I will only find out here."

"Really?" Mako said, intrigued. He always acted like a protective older brother to Kaya so the thought of her at the ball with a date perked his curiosity. "What _did_ she tell you about him?"

"Well, all I could pick out is that he's around her age and he's a water bender because they're color coordinating by the element he bends," Korra answered. "And apparently she's been dating him. And they've kissed!" This seemed to irritate Mako.

"Well, that limits it down to about 1/3 of the guys here," Bolin said.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until she introduces him," Asami said thoughtfully.

They all chatted for a bit, slowly becoming more and more anxious to meet Kaya's Boyfriend, as they started calling him.

It wasn't until after the welcome speech given to all the guests that Korra saw Kaya again. Without her date.

"Kaya!" She yelled, "When do we get to meet your boyfriend?" Kaya had walked over and blushed at the word boyfriend.

"Oh, so I'm your boyfriend now, huh?" An approaching voice teased. Korra could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Tahno?!" Korra yelled as Tahno hooked his arm around Kaya's waist. "_You're_ Kaya's boyfriend?!"

"Well actually, I was just her date for tonight," He smirked, "But I guess I've been deemed her boyfriend now."

"Tahno?!" Mako, Asami, and Bolin had approached now and Mako and Bolin were more than surprised (and slightly angered) by the discovery of Kaya's date.

Mako locked eyes with Kaya and gave her a look that said 'How could you flirt with the enemy?'

"Kaya! How on earth could you even think of _speaking_ with this guy?!" Mako yelled. "He's one of the worst people out there!"

"Yeah!" Korra agreed, "He's a horrible person!" Tahno looked angry and opened his mouth to retort-

But Kaya got there first. "How _dare_ you! What right do you have to tell me who I can or cannot date!" Even Tahno looked surprised at how furious she was. "Who I date is my own business. And you guys barely even know him! Have you ever actually tried to have a conversation with him before? Tahno is one of the sweetest people I've ever met." She turned to Korra. "You can't say that you like him any less than you did when you didn't know who he was. When you first heard about him you thought for sure I must have gotten a great guy. You had absolutely no resentment towards him. This is why I didn't want you to meet him! Because I knew you'd act like this!" With that, Kaya ran off into the crowd.

"Kaya! Wait!" Tahno turned to run after her without so much as a glance towards the four of them.

"Okay," Asami started, "Maybe I don't know this guys like you guys do, but I do know that unless you think that it's in the best interest of someone, you don't say that about their boyfriend. Ever."

"You don't get it Asami! This guy's bad news! He-" Mako started.

"He what? He's on one of your opposing teams? Sure he's cocky and he seems like a bad person, but I know Kaya well enough to know that she wouldn't go anywhere near a guy that was really that bad."

"Asami has a point you two," Bolin spoke up, "You should probably apologize." Mako and Korra snorted. "I'm not saying you have to apologize to Tahno, but you need to apologize to Kaya. She seemed really upset."

Mako seemed guilty, but didn't make any kind of move to go towards where Kaya ran. Korra just silently started following the direction Kaya ran in.

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**I think everyone except for Kaya and maybe Asami were a little OOC. Tahno's is supposed to show that he really cares about Kaya so that's fine. Mako's okay. But Korra, I'm just not sure. This story's really taken a different turn than I thought.**


	3. The Hope

Meanwhile, Kaya sulked against the back wall of the ball room, holding back tears. She knew this would happen. She knew how much they didn't like Tahno. But she'd known Tahno for a few years now, and sure he was a jerk when it came to pro-bending, but he was a great person otherwise. She couldn't think of a time when Tahno had done something truly bad, in pro-bending or in just life.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Tahno coming through the crowd and putting his arm on her shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked her in a tender voice. Kaya just nodded. "Don't worry about what they think, they would've said the same things if we were only friends."

"But that's just it!" Kaya said, "They wouldn't even try to get to know you even if we were just friends, so it's gonna be a lot worse since we're dating!" Kaya's voice cracked. The tears started flowing before she could stop them. "And knowing Mako, he'll tell my dad that you're a horrible person and my dad won't listen to me after that."

Tahno wrapped her up in a hug. "Calm down, Airbender. That's not going to happen." He wasn't so sure himself, but he invited her here so they could have fun. And the fun was going to start now. "Listen, Airbender," he started in his snarky voice, "If you think I'm gonna let some losers ruin our night; you've got another thing coming."

"Don't call my friends losers, pretty boy," Kaya played along, giving him a light shove.

"What other name do they have? Losers are losers," Tahno replied with a smirk.

"You lookin' for a fight, pretty boy?" Kaya gave him a glare and took a step closer.

"Go ahead," Tahno also took a step forward, "I'll give you the first shot," the famous line.

The two stared each other down, their faces only a short distance away from each other. Then Kaya made the first move right as Korra showed up. She kissed him.

Tahno seemed only a little taken aback by this turn of events, usually when this sort of thing occurred they just stared each other down or she punched him in the shoulder. But Tahno definitely wasn't complaining. Until the kiss broke a bit too soon for his liking.

Kaya just laughed, "Come on, let's head to the dance floor!" She dragged Tahno along by the arm.

She locked eyes with Korra just long enough to her apology in her eyes and give her a smile that said, "Its okay."

Korra wasn't exactly sure what to think when she stumbled upon Kaya kissing Tahno. But when they broke apart, the look of happiness on Kaya's face told her that she was fine.

As Kaya dragged Tahno off, their eyes apologized for them. But she made sure to lock eyes with Tahno once, to give him a stare that said, "Maybe you aren't so bad, but make one wrong move and you're dead." Tahno simply nodded and followed Kaya.

"Maybe he's not so bad, after all," Korra thought. "But I can't help feeling it will all go downhill during the championships.

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**This story wasn't supposed to redeem Tahno in anyway. It was more of to show that he can act differently on and off the pro-bending field. And it surprises all the characters what he does during the finals. It's just supposed to lead to the broken moment Kaya's going to have later. I'm going to write a sequel to this and it'll explain more what I meant.I'm not sure if I liked this ending. I may end up re-writing it. Tell if you have any constructive criticism. Thanks! Oh, and I FINALLY FINISHED A STORY THAT WASN'T A ONESHOT!**


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